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5mo will only nurse before sleeping

My son had a tongue and lip tie procedure about 3 weeks ago after 4months of struggles. I finally have gotten him to nurse, but he'll only nurse to sleep. He won't nurse during his awake meal times. Any suggestions? Should I just count my blessings that he's nursing at all? I work at home full-time but my husband has to give him bottles while I'm working.

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

meIt's normal for babies to nurse to sleep. Whether your baby 'should' sleep every breastfeed would depend on a number of things... How often are you feeding? Is the baby napping without a breastfeed? How much total sleep is your baby getting in a 24 hour period? How many bottle feeds does your baby have per day and how much each time?

I'm not qualified or experienced enough to say what is going on even if answered all of those... What I would say is make sure (as best you can) that baby is getting enough sleep and not refusing to nap without the breast and then being exhausted when the breast is offered. If your baby sleeps every breastfeed if sounds like a great way to get nap times into a vague routine.

Make sure your babies bottle intake is such that your baby is hungry for breastfeeds... I don't mean make them go hungry but check out the paced feeding guidelines for bottlefeeding and feed small and often (compared to regular formula guidelines) to mimic breastfeeding.

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

not sure how much I can help... I've breastfed my daughter since birth but I have supply issues/she gets bottles at daycare and she throws a FIT during most daytime nursing sessions and is extremely annoying to nurse. How I cope with this is that when I know she's hungry + I have low supply, I feed her a couple of oz of EBM first and then latch her. Helps if it's during a tired time (before naps) too.

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

[QUOTE=@llli*bsua65;1334469]meIt's normal for babies to nurse to sleep. Whether your baby 'should' sleep every breastfeed would depend on a number of things... How often are you feeding? Is the baby napping without a breastfeed? How much total sleep is your baby getting in a 24 hour period? How many bottle feeds does your baby have per day and how much each time?

I'm not qualified or experienced enough to say what is going on even if answered all of those... What I would say is make sure (as best you can) that baby is getting enough sleep and not refusing to nap without the breast and then being exhausted when the breast is offered. If your baby sleeps every breastfeed if sounds like a great way to get nap times into a vague routine.

Make sure your babies bottle intake is such that your baby is hungry for breastfeeds... I don't mean make them go hungry but check out the paced feeding guidelines for bottlefeeding and feed small and often (compared to regular formula guidelines) to mimic breastfeeding.

I hope there's someone here that can help in more detail than me [/QUO
To answer your questions...he's solely bottle fed right now. I am able to get him to comfort nurse a few times a day while I'm working just trying to keep him familiar with the breast. Of course there isn't much eating as he's already had a bottle (won't nurse in any form outside of nap/bed time) and he's obviously tired because he's preparing for a nap. He sleeps about 10 hours at night (straight-no waking) and daytime naps have good and bad days (never took more than a 30 min nap today but he'll have days he surprises us with a two hour nap). His bottles are 4-5 oz and he gets them about every 2-3 hours. Remember, he sleeps 10 hours at night so I figure he gets between 24-36 oz worth of bottles. So of course he isn't willing to nurse for a meal...UGH...it's like a cycle...

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

Originally Posted by @llli*xiaoshira

not sure how much I can help... I've breastfed my daughter since birth but I have supply issues/she gets bottles at daycare and she throws a FIT during most daytime nursing sessions and is extremely annoying to nurse. How I cope with this is that when I know she's hungry + I have low supply, I feed her a couple of oz of EBM first and then latch her. Helps if it's during a tired time (before naps) too.

He screams after 4 or 5 oz bottles. If I try to give him any less, forget about it!

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

Originally Posted by @llli*rebekahb

He screams after 4 or 5 oz bottles. If I try to give him any less, forget about it!

Yeah - have you tried latching AFTER a 4-5 oz bottle? Honestly sometimes I just give it up and pump. I'm actively trying to get my supply up so that I can improve the nursing, but it's really depressing to have her suck for a few seconds, see nothing's coming out (or not fast enough) and then just SCREAM in my face!

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

His bottles are 4-5 oz and he gets them about every 2-3 hours. Remember, he sleeps 10 hours at night so I figure he gets between 24-36 oz worth of bottles. So of course he isn't willing to nurse for a meal...UGH...it's like a cycle...

So what jumps out at me is that your baby is essentially fully fed with bottles, is getting rather large feeds, and also sleeping a tremendous stretch at night.

I think in many cases, a sleepy baby is more willing to try to nurse. So if I were in your shoes, I would start by encouraging some nighttime breastfeeding, just to get baby back to and comfortable with the breast.

The next thing I would try is decreasing the amount of milk in those bottles, and then "finishing" baby at the breast. It sounds like perhaps baby has just gotten used to the quicker, easier flow of the bottle, and needs a little help relearning how to nurse to get his meals. You are right that you are trapped in a cycle right now--if baby is getting fully fed by the bottle, there is no reason to work at nursing! So I would try to gradually shift that by taking the edge off with a much smaller bottle, then encouraging baby to finish up at the breast.

Apologies for the short responses! I'm usually responding one-handed on my smartphone!

Re: 5mo will only nurse before sleeping

A baby isn't going to need/want a breast after 5oz! As Sonogirl said see if you can finish feeds on the breast. I would say night time feeds might be a good place to start but if your lo is sleeping 10 hours then there isn't any chance (tho the sleep must be welcome!)

Taking time to do regular skin to skin, nursing when tired and generally keeping baby acquainted with your breasts will help encourage feeding.